A minute in a life
by RGoodfellow64
Summary: Rick and Kate and their future together.


A minute in a life

by RGoodfellow64

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Disclaimer: I sincerely doubt I'll get the rights to Castle for Christmas, but there's still time for that to happen. Until it does however, I still don't own Castle.

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Rick Castle had forgotten how hard the seats could be. Although it had been slightly more than twenty years since Alexis graduated, it seemed like only yesterday to him as he looked up at the stage to see his son give the valedictorian speech. He'd asked his older sister for ideas and Alexis had helped, but she refused to tell her father anything at all about it. Rick would have to find out on Graduation night like everyone else.

Somehow, Alexis had even managed to evade Kate's questioning looks and glares. It helped that every time Kate saw Alexis, she'd brought one of her children with her so Kate would end up just playing with the kids. Alexis was sneaky that way, Rick thought with a smile.

He turned to his right and smiled at Alexis. She was here alone as her husband stayed home with the kids, but everyone would be together for the party afterwards.

Rick looked past Alexis to see his mother trying to hold back her tears as she watched her grandson prepare to give his speech. Although she couldn't get around easily without a walker now, Martha demanded to be in attendance and Kate agreed. That's all it took for Rick to lose any argument he planned to make. He could win sometimes against Kate, he could win most of the time against his mother, but when the two got together, he'd learned years ago to simply give in to whatever they wanted…that's how things would end up anyway, so why go through all that hassle.

As his son cleared his throat and began to speak, Rick felt his hand being squeezed. Kate had his hand firmly in hers, with a grip that spoke not only of her love for him, her love and pride for their son, but her constant amazement on how her life turned completely around after Rick came into it. Just past Kate, on her left sat her dad, Jim. Jim's smile was so wide Rick thought his face would break.

Rick looked up at the stage and watched his son with pride. At the same time, he couldn't help but experience once again all those milestones they'd had over the years.

Soon the words were replaced with memories…

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Kate looked up expectantly at the monitor and then at the doctor, a worried look on her face as Rick sat beside her holding her hand.

"Well?" she asked, becoming frustrated with the lack of response.

"Your baby just doesn't want to co-operate Mrs. Castle, let me try just one more thing here…" he said hesitantly and then suddenly he smiled. "Congratulations, you're having a boy!"

Kate beamed and looked at her husband, "A boy, Rick. We're having a boy!"

"A boy!" he said in wonder. "We're having a boy!"

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"Kevin, the drawing clearly shows it goes here," Rick said in exasperation.

Ryan took the instructions out of Rick's hand and said, "Look Castle, this is page three, we haven't finished with page one yet." When Rick tried to interrupt Ryan said, "I had to put one of these together with my father-in-law last year, trust me, I know what I'm talking about. You can't put this piece in here till you put one of those leg brace things on first."

"I can't believe we've been at this for almost two hours! It's one simple piece of furniture!"

Ryan laughed and said, "It took my father-in-law and me almost five hours to put this together. Finally Jen and her mom came home, took one look at it and kicked us out of the room and put it together themselves."

"Five hours?" Rick asked.

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and said, "It may have had something to do with the two bottles of Irish Crème we finished off while we were working at it."

"How long did it take Jen and your mother-in-law to put it together?"

"Twenty minutes."

"Think you can call them?"

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He walked out to the waiting room to see his mother, Alexis, Jim Beckett, Ryan, Esposito, Jenny and Lanie all impatiently waiting for any word. At his entrance they stopped what they were doing and looked at him expectantly.

He turned to where Jim and Martha were sitting and said with a huge smile, "We have a seven pound, eleven ounce baby boy."

As everyone clapped and congratulated him, Ryan asked, "So did you take the movie like you planned?"

Rick looked a bit sheepish and said, "Ahh, let's just say I need to go buy another camera. It didn't survive more than a second from the moment I showed it to Kate."

Smiling, Ryan put out his hand and Esposito took some bills out of his wallet and handed them to him.

"Oh God, you even bet on that?" Lanie said just as Jim asked, "Have you finally decided on a name yet?"

Rick smiled and said, "Kate wants to be the one who tells it, and frankly after what she did to my camera, I'm letting her do whatever she wants."

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He awoke to something missing. Putting out his hand, he realized Kate wasn't in bed. He slowly got up, walked out of the bedroom, through his office, and stopped in the doorway at the entrancing sight before him.

Obviously, the baby had woken up and Rick had slept through it. Kate had him in her arms and was gently dancing around the Christmas tree. She was softly singing carols and trying to get him back to sleep but the twinkling lights on the tree, combined with his mother's voice meant the little boy was wide awake. Rick could see his big blue eyes as he kept looking from his mother to the tree and back again.

Kate slowly moved out of sight as they danced around the tree. Rick knew they would probably not get any more sleep tonight as little hands kept reaching out for the tree before they came back to Kate's hair.

Rick was positive he'd never seen a more beautiful sight in his life.

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They walked in the door and as Rick was putting their coats away, he heard his son say, "Dad chased the ducks again Mom."

Kate smiled, and then pretended to sigh as she turned from the kitchen counter and said, "I thought you were going to keep an eye on him this time."

The little four year old looked solemn as he said, "I tried Mom, but you know how he is."

Kate bent down to give her son a kiss then looked up at Rick and said with a smile, "Oh I do, I really, really do."

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The scenes came faster and faster, little photographs or snippets of life as he watched his son grow up. Alexis helping him learn how to read, Kate teaching him how to throw a baseball and use a bat, Jim teaching him how to fish and Martha teaching him how to sing and play the piano.

He had more aunts and uncles growing up than most kids, and since many of them were with the NYPD, he made sure to stay out of the trouble boys could get into. He carried the ring when his older sister Alexis got married and he loved to babysit for his nieces and nephew. As he grew, Kate worried about all the girls who were starting to look at him a certain way and she was the one who had to explain the facts of life when Rick kept stuttering. "Don't laugh," he told Kate that night. "It was so much easier when I had that talk with Alexis; there was so much I learned."

There were the PTA meetings, which as far as Kate was concerned were something created as a precursor for those destined for hell in the afterlife. Rick however loved the meetings and went every chance he got. There were the science projects over the years that only once forced them out of their home for a week while repairs were made.

Baseball games, soccer games, school plays, they each passed through his mind as he watched his son give a wonderful speech. He was so proud of his children, and Jim was thrilled that his grandson wanted to go into law. Kate was already talking about her sons' future as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Rick looked at his son and smiled as he felt a tear fall from his eye. He squeezed Kate's hand again and sighed.

Kate gently called his name but he wanted to hear his son so he shook his head, but she called him again, this time putting her hand on his shoulder.

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"Rick. Rick?"

He turned to look at her and suddenly found himself sitting on the living room couch beside Kate, looking into her glorious eyes.

"Rick? Did you hear me? We're going to have a baby."

A huge smile came on his face as he wiped away a tear. He leaned forward and kissed her, then he pulled back and softly said, "Oh yes, Kate, I heard you…I definitely heard you."

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**AUTHORS NOTE: I started this story a couple of months ago, had one chapter written and then it just sat, untouched till a couple of days ago. Why my muse needs to send me inspiration while I'm driving, I have no idea, but she did and this is the result. I hope you like it because it brought out the emotions I wanted. I can imagine Castle, with his imagination, living an entire lifetime with his wife Kate and their son, in only a few seconds.**


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